New Interactive Terminal UI for TOON 🚀

[shreyasbhat0]

What is This?

An interactive, real-time terminal interface for converting between JSON and TOON format. Think of it as a modern TUI alternative to the CLI, perfect for:

• Learning TOON format interactively
• Testing conversions in real-time
• Developing with instant feedback
• Exploring different encoding options

Key Features

Real-Time Conversion

• Instant feedback as you type
• Split-screen layout - see input and output side-by-side
• Live statistics showing token and byte savings
• Visual arrow showing conversion direction (→ or ←)

Interactive Settings

• Toggle between Encode/Decode modes (Ctrl+E)
• Adjust all TOON options on-the-fly:
  • Delimiters (Comma/Tab/Pipe)
  • Indentation levels
  • Key folding (v1.5 feature)
  • Path expansion
  • Strict mode & type coercion

File Management

• Visual file browser
• Navigate directories with arrow keys
• Auto-detect file types (.json/.toon)
• Open, save, and create files seamlessly

Round-Trip Testing

• One-key testing (Ctrl+B) for data integrity
• Automatically converts: JSON → TOON → JSON
• Verifies that data survives the round-trip
• Essential for production validation

Smart Clipboard Integration

• Copy entire output (Ctrl+Y)
• Copy from active panel (Ctrl+K)
• Paste into input (Ctrl+V)
• Works across all platforms

Advanced Views

• Conversion history - Track last 50 conversions
• Side-by-side diff viewer - Compare input/output
• Statistics bar - Real-time token/byte savings
• Built-in help (F1) - All keyboard shortcuts

Customization

• Dark/Light themes (Ctrl+T)
• Scrollable panels (both input and output)
• Panel switching with Tab

How to Use

Quick Start

# Launch interactive mode
toon -i

# Or full flag
toon --interactive

Screenshots

Main Interface

What do you think? @johannschopplich

[johannschopplich]

The screenshots/wireframes are lit! 🔥

I think some kind of REPL would be pretty useful. Any language implementation can add their own features as long as they are spec-conform (which you are).

So feel free to build it. 🙌

[shreyasbhat0]

implemented in here #29 . Do check it out @johannschopplich

[johannschopplich]

@shreyasbhat0 I love your work! Thanks for continuously working on the package. I might have to update the Implementations guide to highlight this feature. :)

[shreyasbhat0]

Thank you! @johannschopplich .
I agree — adding this to the Implementations guide will make it more discoverable to users.